Have you had a funny or interesting close encounter with an underwater creature or critter? please tell, please tell!!
:smilie40:

as for me...
Back in June I was doing my navigation dive for my AOW out at the Sea Lion Rookery in the Channel Islands. I was trying very hard to focus on the compass despite a playfull and curious sea lion that kept darting in front of me trying to get my attention. I kept waving him off thinking "c'mon! can't you see I'm busy? - just a minute!"

Suddenly he came at me from above and behind, darted in quickly, and blew a huge stream of bubbles in my face.
He startled me bad enough to warm my wetsuit. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/images/smilies/Standard%20Smiles/11.gif

I don't care what anybody says...I swear to you Sea Lions can Laugh!

My Instuctor and my Sweetheart both flooded their masks laughing at how I jumped.

Score:
Sea Lion: 1
Noobie Diver trying to practice skills: 0

FishFood

09-13-2007, 18:53

He startled me bad enough to warm my wetsuit.

I don't care what anybody says...I swear to you Sea Lions can Laugh!

Heh. That's pretty good. Kodak moment there...

Ive got one.

A about a month ago I was at the jetties across the channel from St Andrews, Fl. There is usually a good amount of sting rays. One of which, is missing part of his tail. He'll let you get real close to him. So, im busy taking some close up shots of him (found on the site in my sig ;) ) when I feel something coming at me. I look up to find another (rather good size) sting ray swimming right at me. He passed right over my head... coulda touched it... Scared the you-know-what out of me.

Zenagirl

09-13-2007, 19:04

On one of our first post-certification dives we were diving Mala Wharf on Maui. When you dive in Hawaii, it is beaten into your head NOT to touch the turtles, they are protected and you could be fined up to $10,000 for bothering them. During our dive we came upon a HUGE Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle sleeping amongst the rubble of the wreck. Our group of 5 stopped near him (about 15' away) to look at him. All of a sudden he opens his eyes, watches us for about 30 seconds and decides he's outta there. The next thing my husband and I know this 500 pound turtle is heading straight AT US!!! I moved to the right and my husband stayed where he was to give the turtle a straight shot between us, since that's where it was heading. But no, the turtle had other ideas and turned slightly to head straight for my husband! It passed within inches of the top of my husband's head but everyone thought there was going to be a collision.

Ironically, the only thing my husband said back on the boat (and still today) was "dang, I wish I would have had a camera!" :D :D

finflippers

09-13-2007, 19:27

During the dive I saw what I thought was a sting ray coming out of the weeds so I laid on the bottom and held out my hand as he came out towards me until I saw the fins and realized it was some kind of shark!! It continued towards me till he was about 2' away from my mask, he looked to be about 6' to 7' long. He stared at me for what felt like an eternity as I laid there motionless waiting on him to move. finally he turned and went back into the weeds I swam towards my dive buddy as I looked down and realized it was inches below me. I was startled and jerked my knees under my body accidentally hitting him. He then swam frantically to the bottom and disappeared and me and John headed to the surface and disappeared also. I have looked them up and seen them called Shovelnose shark, Shovelnose guitarfish, and Shovelnose ray. You can see one at....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelnose_guitarfish

Osprey

09-13-2007, 19:37

One time when I was younger I was swimming in the gulf in some really murky water, riding the waves in.

One wave rolled me, and as I dabbled underwater I ran face long into a grouper

My mom still tells stories about the day I walked on water..

DevilDiver

09-13-2007, 19:50

Diving in Jamaica (Not recommended) on a shallow site (30-35'). DM points into a swim-through (est. 15' long) and signs "shark". With camera in hand I start in for the big photo-op. Getting closer I see a 12' Nurse circling in the darkness silhouetted against the light at the back of the swim through. I proceed into the cavern and try to rest on the bottom in the surge. The circling shark is stirring up all kinds of sand.
I am resting on the sand hoping for a picture in the poor viz. Then the shark realizes I am there and charges right at me. About a foot in front of me it stops and spins around on a dime showering me in sand and shot out of the back of the swim through. (They move very fast when they want to)
As I lay there and let the sand settle and decided to start breathing again I decide to look around ..... I AM LAYING RIGHT NEXT TO THE FEMALE HE WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS.... !!

Took my pics and backed out. Good Dive!:smiley20:

finflippers

09-13-2007, 20:02

As I lay there and let the sand settle and decided to start breathing again I decide to look around ..... I AM LAYING RIGHT NEXT TO THE FEMALE HE WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS.... !!

OOPS!

DevilDiver

09-13-2007, 20:06

As I lay there and let the sand settle and decided to start breathing again I decide to look around ..... I AM LAYING RIGHT NEXT TO THE FEMALE HE WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS.... !!

OOPS!

He could have put a sock on the door knob at least.

Vegas

09-13-2007, 20:33

As I lay there and let the sand settle and decided to start breathing again I decide to look around ..... I AM LAYING RIGHT NEXT TO THE FEMALE HE WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS.... !!

OOPS!

He could have put a sock on the door knob at least.

OMG!! ROTFLMAO!!:smilie39:

diversteve

09-13-2007, 20:47

Nobody believes this...(but I've got video...)

We're doing the shark feed at Cay Sal on Nekton last summer. Captain Ephey leads the dive. He's knows that I'm shooting HD. Everyone gets positioned in a semicircle on the bottom a good 25-30' under the ball that stops the chumsicle. They drop it and the sharks come streaming in and it's mostly gone in about 3-5 mins.

All that's left is a bunch of sharks in aggressive cruise position (fins forward) cleaning up the remnants. So Ephey motions me over into the sand flats closer to the feed chain. There's at least 3 DM's with pole spears hovering there and the ships videographer.

So I move over, kneel down and start filming. Just a minute or two into it I notice a chunk of the bait ball start drifting downcurrent towards us. So I'm keeping an eye on it figuring some shark will grab it.

As I'm watching it's getting bigger and bigger in my viewfinder, all too soon I realize it's going to land at my knees - which it does. About that time a 3-4' (max) Caribbean Reef Shark spots it and streaks over to get it.

But he can't grab it as it comes to rest right up against my legs. So he starts thrashing at my feet and Matt the DM sees him and drops down to poke him away. While I'm trying to elevate vertically as fast as possible.

The shark gets hold of the bait and goes vertical up my chest. I've got a 1 second closeup as he goes by my camera port. The whole thing only took 5-6 seconds but it seemed to be in slow motion at the time. I'll grab a still and post it here if I get a chance.

Just as I settle back down, another shark comes in from behind and hits me in the side of my BCD with his fin as he goes by. Totally an accident, he was way more interested in the remains of the baitball. You see the jerk as he hits me while I'm filming.

I'm not ashamed to admit that at that point I crawled back to the group...it's on the tape. And the water nearby might've been 98.6' for a couple of seconds also.

Just as the feed is over the ballsiest 2' Stingray I've ever seen nonchalantly cruises down the sand channel looking for leftovers

Later back on the boat, Matt tells me: "I saw what was happening but I couldn't keep him off you."

chinacat46

09-14-2007, 07:59

I was diving off the Kona Aggressor and we were doing a night dive at the same site we dove during the afternoon. For lunch that day we had baby back ribs. Any way I was the first person in on the night dive and dropped down below the boat. I found a crab and he had one of the ribs they tossed off the boat and was having himself quite a BBQ. I laughed so hard at the crab eating that rib that I flooded my mask.

Texas Girl

09-14-2007, 08:32

In Fiji, my husband and I were making our way back to the boat and he had to stop and film something. So I was just hovering nearby. A damselfish decided that I was invading it's territory and came out to do something about it. I flooded my mask and almost drowned laughing at this 4" fish swimming aggresively just inches from my mask.

Many years ago we did the manta ray night dive in Kona, Hawaii. An amazing dive, with the mantas swooping gracefully, barely missing your head as they go by. There was this one that I nicknamed Lefty because it had a broken mantle. She started coming at me, and I kept thinking that any second now she is going to bank. Nope. She ran into my shoulder as she went by. Around 5 years later we did the dive again, and during the briefing, they were describing some of the usual mantas, and one of them was Lefty, but she didn't run into me that time.